What Is 12-Lead ECG Analysis?

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The ECG provides a representation of the electrical activity of the human heart and is a very important tool for the diagnosis of disturbances of heart rate and rhythm. The ECG is derived by placing electrical leads on a patient’s chest and limbs and provided one of the first methods for automatically determining heart rate (HR) and detecting irregular rhythms of the heart. Original monitors allowed physicians and nurses the ability to watch the ECG trace on an oscilloscope. Since ECG signal measured on the skin is very small (1mV), it is subject to artifacts (noise) caused by such things a patient movement, electrode movement, and electrical power interference. By using sophisticated analog and digital techniques and presenting data from multiple …show more content…
The 12-lead ECG is typically performed in a physician’s office or in the hospital. Usually a technician brings a recording device to the patient’s bedside and attaches the leads, and records the signal acquisition during a short interval while the patient is lying quietly in a supine position. From this 12-lead ECG, a wide variety of ECG diagnoses are made. Computer processing of these ECG signals taken at that moment in time has become the definitive practical option for ECG interpretation. Automated ECG analysis has become widespread in clinical practice since the mid-1980s although, in most hospitals, cardiologists will also read them to confirm the automated findings. Automated ECG analysis is quite accurate, especially in normal individuals, but disagreements with cardiologists are seen and may be clinically important (Guglin 2006; Bogun et al. 2004). On the other hand, cardiologists are not perfect either (Clark et al. 2010)! (Gardner, Clemmer, Evans, Mark, …show more content…
Continuous, real-time monitoring is required while the patient is in the ICU. Because of patient movement, caregiver activities such as administering medications, bathing and the like, the amount of artifact generated poses important challenges to real-time monitoring. To minimize these effects, filtering of the acquired ECG signal is performed. This filtering slightly distorts the ECG but at the same time makes it possible to process the signals on a beat-by-beat basis. Although standards for interpretation of ECG monitoring are more recent than those for 12-lead monitoring, they are now becoming more common and sophisticated (Drew and Funk 2006; Funk et al. 2010). The clinical experts who are establishing the knowledge base now include critical-care nurses, cardiologists, anesthesiologist, and thoracic surgeons (Crossley et al. 2011). (Gardner, Clemmer, Evans, Mark,